Stranger Things features the terrifying Upside Down – but what is it, why can Will Byers see the dimension in season 2 and when did the demogorgon kill Barb?

Netflix drama has left viewers terrified with its depiction of a dark world much like our own but quilted in darkness and littered with hideous creatures

By Olivia Waring and Imogen Groome

3rd November 2017,5:07 pm

Updated: 3rd November 2017,5:10 pm

STRANGER Things tells the thrilling tale of otherworldly activity going down in Hawkins, Indiana – a small town which soon grips Will, Nancy, Jonathan, Hopper and co in a supernatural drama.

The teaser for series two of the 80s-set drama showed a bigger shadow monster taking over the town in the ‘ethereal plane’ which Will could see with ‘true sight’. But what is the world of the Upside Down?

Stranger Things has terrified viewers with its depiction of a fictional world referred to as the Upside Down

What is the Upside Down in Stranger Things?

The Upside Down is an alternate dimension which was accidentally opened by Eleven in Season One, and releases a series of demogorgons – or demo-dogs, as Dustin calls them – into Hawkins.

Numerous characters have referred to it using the word “dimension”, and Dustin compared it to the fictional Vale of Shadows in the boardgame Dungeons & Dragons.

This would make it “a dimension that is a dark reflection, or echo, of our world”.

Dustin explained: “It is a place of decay and death, a plane out of phase, a place of monsters. It is right next to you and you do not even see it.”

Accessing this demonic other dimension is possible once the ‘gate’ has opened – and fans saw Nancy and Jonathan fall in and out of it through a tree in the first season. However, the bulk of the action goes down at Hawkins Lab, where scientists routinely explore and tackle the hostile environment.

What lives in the Upside Down?

In series one the main monster was referred to as a Demogorgon and it had a flower-like head on a humanoid body.

It would capture humans, sometimes killing them and sometimes not – fans saw Barb killed by the creature in season one, and Will was also captured after spending a long time successfully evading it, but his mother and Hopper were able to rescue him upon venturing into the Upside Down themselves.

A creature referred to as a Demogorgon haunted this world in the first series

How did Barbara Holland, aka Barb, die in Stranger Things?

Barb – the best friend of Nancy Byers – was taken by a monster from the Upside Down while sitting alone by a pool during the party where Nancy and Steve abandoned her to pursue their romance and she felt like an outcast.

The blood from a cut on her hand dripped into the pool and its scent attracted the creature, which appeared behind her and dragged her into the alternate world.

She was killed by the Demogorgon and stashed in its nest, with Eleven later discovering her corpse when she searched for both Barb and Will.

What happened to Will Byers in the Upside Down?

The first series of Stranger Things saw Will Byers mysteriously disappear, with his mother – played by Winona Ryder – never losing faith that her son was still alive.

Communicating through the lights in their family home from the Upside Down, Will told her he was still alive, but repeatedly running and hiding from the creature and seeking refuge in his fortress in the woods.

He was found and rescued at the end of season one, but viewers saw him vomit up a slug into the sink – which was then discovered by Dustin in the next season and grew into one of the ‘demo-dogs’.

Will continued to have visions of the Upside Down, which were initially labelled as PTSD flashbacks, but were later revealed to be true sightings of the alternate dimension.

As the second season progresses, Will is taken hostage by the shadow monster and puts the entire town of Hawkins in danger – with a fight to free the demon from Will’s body alongside Eleven battling to close the gate then taking place.